A Message from the Commissioner
This article was written by our Commissioner Rohit T. Aggarwala. Aggarwala was recently appointed by Mayor Eric Adams to lead the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and serve as the City's Chief Climate Officer.
It is a great honor to join you this week as Commissioner and I am very grateful to Mayor Eric Adams for this opportunity to serve the city where I was born and which I love so much.
There are many reasons I am excited to be here. First is my deep appreciation for how central DEP is to New York life. It is not a stretch to say that DEP is the only agency that literally every single New Yorker can’t go a day without. Every DEP employee plays a critical role: whether you are protecting the water in our reservoirs, maintaining the infrastructure that gets it to our taps safely, working to keep our sewers and wastewater systems working properly, or protecting New Yorkers from air and noise pollution, you perform a mission-critical role. And all of this would not be possible without the important work of teams like customer services, public affairs, legal, human resources, employee safety, and everyone else at DEP who give their best every day.
I also know DEP has always been at the cutting edge of urban infrastructure. When the City needed clean drinking water, DEP developed the first Croton system in the 1840s. In the 1880s, when raw sewage polluted the harbor, DEP brought the first wastewater treatment plants online, which in recent decades have brought whales and dolphins back to our shores. And when poor air quality choked our neighborhoods, DEP moved to eliminate coal and dirty heating oil from New York City’s boilers, dramatically improving the health of New Yorkers. Over the last two years of the COVID-19 epidemic, your collective dedication has kept New York City running while still maintaining DEP’s reputation as a world-class water and wastewater utility.
This is a great legacy that will inspire us as we face the reality of climate change. Whether it’s sea level rise, intense storms, or warming temperatures, DEP faces threats on multiple fronts. DEP has already been a leader on that front, starting work on its own climate adaptation planning more than 15 years ago. In addition to asking me to lead DEP, Mayor Adams also asked me to take on the role of the City’s Chief Climate Officer, overseeing the entire Administration’s effort on climate change. This will give me the opportunity to highlight DEP’s credentials as the city’s environmental protector, deepen our ties to City Hall and other agencies, and renew our relationship with regulators and advocates.
I’m particularly thankful for the fact that everyone at DEP — especially me — will be able to rely on Vinny Sapienza’s continued leadership in his new role as Chief Operating Officer. I couldn’t be more grateful to Vinny for agreeing to stay on at DEP so I can rely on his expertise and deep institutional knowledge.
I am tremendously excited to learn from you and work together to deliver safe, clean water; preserve and enhance our infrastructure; and protect our environment and our watershed. Above all else, I’m looking forward to doing everything I can to make you as successful as possible.
